25. Patsy's "Ab Fab" pal : EDINA. I only know the city Edina here in MN.

26. Divvy up : ALLOT

27. Bourbon and others: Abbr. : STs

28. Small birds with complex songs : WRENS

29. Fit the facts : ADD UP

30. Home on the range : TEEPEE

32. Mine, in Marseilles : A MOI. Alliteration.

34. Winter Palace resident : TSAR

44. Bowlers, e.g. : HATS

48. Biol. or chem. : SCI

49. With 17-Down, warning cry : IT'S A. 17. See 49-Across : TRAP

50. Heather family shrubs : ERICAs. Learning moment for me.

51. Blew it : ERRED

53. Bermuda Triangle locale: Abbr. : ATL

55. Comes down with : GETS

58. "JAG" spin-off : NCIS

64. Katniss' "Hunger Games" ally : PEETA. Another learning moment.

65. South Carolina river : SANTEE. I only know PEE DEE.

66. Foreword : INTRO

67. Closet concern : MOTH

69. Muddy home : STY

70. Game ragout : SALMI.
Never heard of it. Wiki says this: A salmis is a preparation from
classical French cooking. When a roast or sautéed piece of meat is
sliced and reheated in sauce, the result is a salmis.

33. Printemps period : MAI.
May. Printemps is also a huge department store in Paris. I got this
double-layered chiffon top there at the end of last century. Gosh, been so many years. It still fits nicely. The colors probably
confuse D-Otto.

31 comments:

Didn't do well. Still had 31 cells blank (8.4% of 367) when I hit the red, which showed 19 more (5.2%) errors. I filled everything, but no ta-da. A second punch on the red showed 4 (1.1%) still wrong. cOOK > rOOK and MAaD > MADD I finally got, but foreign words only after I had the program show me: AmOI + mAI & LIRe + NISeI.

{C+, B-, C+.}

"IT'S A TRAP!," said Admiral Akbar,A quote acclaimed both near and far!But in defianceThe Rebel AllianceWent ahead and blew up another Death Star!

Jeanie the genii was most photogenic!She hadn't a navel, 'twould be unhygienic!Adolescent populationsDreamt of cross copulations,But any results would have been TRANSGENETIC!

There is a candidate, whose viewpoint is grossWhile spewing out plans and intents grandiose;The RIGAMAROLEsAre to ROOK voter's soulsWith election promises that will prove OTIOSE!

Thanks for the nice review, C.C. I'm glad you picked up on the changed spellings of the final syllable in the base phrases. That's a goal I set myself, and a great many candidates didn't work because of this.

Thanks for the cool poem, Owen. My original "It's a trap!" clue referenced Admiral Akbar. As a biology prof, I also enjoyed your riff on "transgenic" very much. As usual, much gratitude to Rich, who required me to polish the grid a lot before he'd take it. Also, I'd like to thank Patti Varol, who's been very helpful on each of my LAT puzzles.

This ended up being a bit of a workout for me, but I managed to get through it unassisted in the end. It took awhile to figure out the theme, partially because (a) the actual theme title was partially obscured online (all I could see was "Doctor Hood") and (b) it just took time for me to realize that there was no consistency in the letter used for the repeated syllable for each theme answer.

Haven't seen (or read) "Hunger Games", so PEETA remained obscure until the very end when I finally got PHONES and hoped I was right. No idea what a "Bluejacket" was, so needed every perp to get the relatively common TAR. No idea about SANTEE or SALMI (although I finally remembered that "ragout" is a stew).

Had ATMO before HEMI, COPS before LINT and NITTY before NITTI. That was about it for write-overs, though.

Overall, a fun solve. Only thing that stuck in my craw was SOO (as clued). There's a perfectly good clue for that word involving a canal and a railroad. I'm assuming the clue used is referring to a long, drawn-out "so" sound, but SOO just doesn't cut it as far as I'm concerned. Maybe if it had a few more O's...

Maybe I'm getting too old for this stuff. I crashed and burned big-time. Finally had to give up with the Cascades of California still snow-covered. Stuck with MPH and SEMI, couldn't dredge up DWELLS and didn't know SEPTA nor TRANSGENIC (MPH made me think it ended in PHENIC), so I never saw REAP WHAT. Otherwise, Mrs. Lincoln liked the play.

Those colors don't confuse me a bit, C.C. I see a gray top over white shorts and shoes.

When I was in boot camp, lo those many years ago, the only reading materials allowed were the Bible and the Bluejackets Manual -- kinda like the Boy Scout Handbook. As you might guess, there wasn't a lot of reading going on.

One tough Sunday. Caught the theme early and 'The BEAT GOES ON'. Finished it even though it had unknowns and unheard of words. OGHAM, PLINTH, EDINA, PEETA, SALMI, CRI, LYND, TAR, KOAN, REEVE, ERICAS, SALMI, DEBBI- all were filled by perps.

I was all over the place this am. Common STOCK before SENSE, SPLIT before ALLOT, TSK before FIE, MPH before MPG. The 'Press release' of WINE and the cross of ERICAS almost tripped me up.

TEEPEE & TEHEE- IT COULD BE TEPEE & TEEHEE? WIENIE & TRANSGENIC in the same puzzle- wow.

USPO changed to the USPS many years ago, but you have the same old RIGAMAROLE when you go into the Post 'Office".

Lovely photo C.C. Not many can say that they fit in clothes they bought 20 years ago.

Seemed like there were a lot of proper names that I had no idea about and they kept blocking my progress. eg, URBAN... The only URBAN name I know is Meyer.

Perhaps if I were Catholic I might have had a chance at URBAN, but cross that with DEBBI Fields and cross DEBBI with equally unknown Vesper LYND... Then Katniss ally PEETA ? OK then.

Then again, some of it could have been just a bad solving day on my part. Don't feel very sharp this morning. Exhausted after seal-coating the driveway yesterday and had a restless night after falling asleep way too early. Still can't believe I fell asleep during while watching the Buckeyes defeat the Sooners. Waited all week for that game and then missed it.

Chairman Moe, I won't miss the Steelers / Bengals game today. I expect the officials to be involved early and often after last year's games. Especially the playoff game. Bengals line backer Vontaze Burfict will not be playing. He's suspended for the first three games after repeated violations of the league's safety rules. Think of DIRTY POOL that we had as an answer last week or so.

Although dictionaries don't agree with me, I've always had the distinction that a wienie is a hot dog and weenie is a wimp.

This was a DNF due to getting completely off track in the NE corner. I guess I was expecting the pattern of dropping the last two letters such as so(lo), do(jo), hi(Fi), etc., and, as this wasn't the case, confusion overrode common sense. (What else is new?). I found it to be more challenging than a typical Sunday offering. Rigmarole gave me a chuckle because it is one of my sister Eileen's favorite words but every time she uses it, she mimics this puzzle's theme by dropping the le so it comes out rigamaro. Far be it from me to correct Big Sis!" And no, CC, this Irish Miss never heard of Ogham. What little I've seen of the Gaelic language makes me grateful that I didn't have to learn it. ☘

Thanks, Paul, for a Sunday stumper and thanks, CC, for the expert expo. Nice photo, BTW.

Musings-The NE corner also took some effort but all in the all it was a fair puzzle-“Divvying” is a word heard here after big family meals-Bluejays and hummingbirds joined our band of WRENS, finches, cardinals and doves yesterday-They make their “facts” ADD UP-Oops, A MOI and not ATOI and LIRE not LIRA-I resisted SWANEE at _ _ _ _ EE River and WIRE for press release at WI _ E -This vehicle gets .007 MPG-Advice to the LOVELORN was Ann Landers forte’-A zoo MOAT is supposed to keep animals in and idiots out-We AVID Husker fans went a little nuts yesterday with a big win-Their TOOL belt is pretty exotic-We get CALLS on our cells and landline. Daughters have abandoned the latter. You?-A message from Neil de Grasse Tyson for those who dislike PLUTO’s demotion-Back to NATURE? There’s a unit available on Walden Pond.-Off to Omaha!

DNF. Theme gimmick seemed difficult to parse.TAR @ 79d - Bluejacket is an excellent clue for TAR. I think the use of TAR is more British, but I could be wrong. Bluejacket does mean sailor, but my take is that it refers to enlisted crew E6 and below.Naval Institute Proceedings recently had an article on whether 'sailor', per se, referred to officers. Some felt not. But the writer pointed out that one of WWII's top admirals, ADM Arleigh Burke (of 31kt fame) liked to be called a 'sailor' and had it inscribed on his tombstone at Annapolis. Mrs. Burke has the appellation: 'Sailor's Wife' on the same stone.

I did poorly on this puzzle. The theme part went along just fine - I grokked that early enough - but all the little satellite unknowns did me in. DNF for today. However, most of my effort was before coffee, and when I went back after, things were clearer. It's a little scary.

Bratislava was familiar. We visited that city last year, and came away with the same impression that most former Soviet Bloc nations give: it was beautiful once, it's on hard times now, and the architecture suffered mightily under Soviet control.

Christopher Reeve's story is sad. Last week I was chatting with a neighbor who is an EMT and an equestrian. The EMT was nearly always on duty at the horse shows held four times each year at a nearby farm; these are high-ranking events, attracting riders from far and wide. Christopher rode the hunt course in one of those shows, and the knowledgeable EMT observed that his skills were dangerously below par. He was not surprised when, later on at another show, things went very wrong.

Alison 12:15 - I tend to agree with you. I hesitated at that one, because some years ago - probably right here at the Corner - that word came up, and I came to see that I never knew it well enough to spell it or even to use it correctly. The "official" spelling is different, apparently.

Husker 11:15 - Sort of. We dumped the standard copper-pair telephone line when building this house, but kept the number and had it applied to a cable phone service. The idea was to have emergency backup, the need for which was demonstrated in the 2011 snowstorm that walloped New England and cut off utilities including cell service. Granted, the cable was down then too, but at least there is some redundancy. About 99.99% of the calls that come in are junk.

The upper right corner stymied me. I went through a lengthy complicated rigamorale of guesses before deciding that "smart" was right after all, and then I was on my way. I also checked on the spelling of "rigamorale" and it's given as an alternative spelling in DICTIONARY.COM, MERRIAM WEBSTER, and THE FREE DICTIONARY, so I hope you'll feel like going back to the puzzle, Alison.

I erred with "wire," but loved the correct answer to a terrific clue. Have a lovely day, everyone.

Geez! This puzzle killed me! There were so many unknowns I resorted to red letters, google, and running the alphabet. Glad it's over. Thanks for the write up C.C.! It was illuminating as always!

The Osage Orange tree down the street is dropping its fruit and making a mess. The squirrels are nearly suicidal trying to eat the seeds off the pavement, they don't like to move for the vehicles. The local paper ran this article about their history.

Sonny and Cher sang the song, but Bill Murray made it memorable for me.

Went to a networking event and got a free t-shirt that sums up my existence the past 2 years. It reads: "I have no life, I'm in nursing school." 7 months to go!!

Gary: I'm a cell-phone luddite and haven't had one for several years. Once or twice a year I regret that decision when I am supposed to meet someone and things get screwed up. Otherwise, the sound quality of my landline is much superior and I never get a call dropped like my kids do. However, the downside is that is get a lot of solicitations, sales pitches, offers to solve my Windows computer problems (I have a Mac), etc. I try to stay polite as I refuse their offers. (I have to close the bedroom door when trying to take a quick nap.)

The extreme NE 4 x 4 utterly defeated me. If I had remembered RENU, I may have had a chance, otherwise this was fun.I was pleased to see RIGAMAROLE which is what my family uses. RIGMAROLE always jars me, although I realize it is legit. I am amazed that some posters do not accept any variants and call them errors. I balk at "official" preferred spellings. Sometimes dictionaries themselves disagree on which is preferred. But crosswords frequently use variants to make it interesting.Both WEENIE and WIENIE can refer to the sausage, the wimp or the body part. I think WEENIE is more likely to be just the wimp, but not necessarily. Again crosswords demand flexibility. I use my landline when I am home and my cell when I am out. It is difficult to keep my cell near enough to hear at all times when I am home. I can hear the landline from anywhere in the house.

The LW and I have eschewed landlines for years. I got stranded once with a flat tire, and even though it was at the side of a busy freeway, I had to wait hours for rescue! That got me worrying, what if it had been a heart attack? But if anyone not in my phone's address book calls, I ignore it and it goes to a recorded message, "You have reached a deaf person's phone. Text messages only. Don't bother leaving a voice mail, it may be weeks before I have my wife listen to it for me." Sometimes I google the numbers later just for curiosity. It's never one I'd have been interested in.

LW has a smartphone with her own suite of apps. I used to be a computer guru, but I've never been able to get past the opening screen on her phone. I'll stick to my flip phone for a while yet. If it was good enough for Captain Kirk, it's good enough for me!

Hi Y'all! SOOooo many learning experiences here today. Paul really taxed me. I slogged through with my buddy red-letter. Almost all my first tries turned red. Perseverance filled it. I do SOOoo much better than I did when I first started, I am not discouraged by a hard puzzle like the last two days.

Thanks again, C.C.! You look like another lovely flower in that picture. I thought the top was sort of khaki green.

85A: Jays & Rays. I was thrown off the first pass through because in high school I knew a set of ornery twins named Jay & Ray. I dated Jay a short while before they moved. Made me smile. Next pass through I got down to the real clue.

Actually knew OGHAM but not how to spell it. OGum didn't fit.

No landline at my house since my first of three close-spaced moves in Dec. 2000. The phone company wanted a connect fee each time with a number change. No deal. I went strictly cell flip phone. I can tuck it in a pocket or my bra and always have it. Get few nuisance calls.

We each have our own cell phone, and we have a landline as well, necessary for our DSL. We use the landline phone mostly for personal and local calls, and our cell phones for business. I keep mine with me in my pocket. Any calls we receive on any of the phones from an unknown caller we let it go to voicemail or to the answering machine. Most of the time they don't leave a message.

C.C. I love the word hornswoggle - It's a good word to set someone calm even though you feel they're getting the better of you. "'Com'on, I won't be hornswoggled - can we do better?" Usually, they can. I don't think it would work if you said ripped-off.

Re: landline - what Jayce said. Never use it but need it for DSL & the alarm system.

{A-, B, B+}

Paul - I didn't play today but I appreciate the inside-scoop. Some sparkly fill too.

HG - LOL! Re: Onion article. I listen to the crazy-people at night and have heard everyone of those [except consulting w/ Hitler's head] "theories."

For fans of The Boss - a cool story that ran in the paper today [DO & TXMs - it's Hoffman's article in Zest]. So, a HOU area college kid who's a huge fan of Bruce flys to Philly with his dad to see Springsteen. The kid has a sign that says can I play "No Surrender" with you? The Boss invites him up.. It looks scripted but Hoffman's article assures us it's not.

Though it's so late I have to comment. Once I finished this puzzle, I loved it! Thank you, Paul Coulter. Initially, it was a hard, slow slog especially since I couldn't get to sleep until 2:00 A.M. After an hour I returned to bed then a few hours later, got up. resumed the puzzle and did better. I especially liked the fresh and unusual fill. It took a while to dredge PEETA out as it's been several years since reading the Hunger Games, never saw the movie.

The theme was tricky and frankly I didn't even try to sort it out, just worked out the answer as best I could and really laughed at some of them, RAKINGINTHEDOJO, REAPWHATYOUSOLO and ROCKYMOUNTAINHIFI especially. Sadly, like Gary I also had NOTMYCUPOFTEASE and was completely flummoxed by SALMI/TRANSGENIC especially since I had MPH.

Thanks, again, Paul and C.C. You look terrific, C.C. and I applaud you for still being able to wear something from that long ago!

I hope you all had a lovely Sunday! I celebrated two of my friends' birthdays with our group at an excellent Italian Restaurant.

This was made easier for me because I heard the word Bratislava before but didn't know what it was, yet, I sometimes say it because it is fun to say. So, when part of the word began appearing,I said to myself, "Hah, hah, I know that word!"

Awesome! Hubby and I look forward to Sundays each week!! Of course, sometimes it takes till Monday night to finish, but Monday is too easy to bother with anyway!! Keep up the great blog and greetings from Phoenix.